WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s pick for United Nations ambassador, Heather Nauert, could face a tough Senate confirmation process – with her thin resume and the president’s unorthodox foreign policy thrust into the congressional spotlight at a turbulent moment in America’s global standing.

Trump announced Nauert’s nomination in remarks to reporters before leaving for an event in Missouri Friday.
“She’s very talented, very smart, very quick, and I think she’s going to be respected by all,” Trump said of Nauert, a former Fox News anchor and current State Department spokeswoman.

The Trump administration also downgraded the U.N. ambassador position, which is now a Cabinet-level job. That means Nauert will have less influence and a lower profile inside the administration than outgoing U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, who announced her plan to leave the administration in October.

Nauert has served as the State Department’s chief spokeswoman since April 2017, winning Trump over with her polished, camera-ready defense of his “America First” approach to foreign policy. She has also earned the trust of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, traveling the globe with the former Kansas congressman and CIA director over the last seven months.

But if confirmed, Nauert would be one of the most inexperienced U.N. ambassadors in history at a time of extreme flux in international relations. Since taking office, Trump has picked major foreign policy fights with key U.S. allies, including Canada and France, while praising authoritarian regimes in Russia, North Korea and Saudi Arabia.

The U.N. job involves representing the United States at the U.N. Security Council and in delicate diplomatic negotiations with other world leaders. Previous U.N. ambassadors include Adlai Stevenson, George H.W. Bush and Madeleine Albright.

Haley also came into the job with scant foreign policy experience but as the former governor of South Carolina, she brought considerable political and negotiating skills to the post.

Nauert’s nomination also came under fire on Friday for rhetoric she used in some of her reporting at Fox. For example, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, noted that in a 2013 story, Nauert blasted a program in St. Paul, Minnesota, that offered swim classes for Somali-American girls, which included special arrangements to address their religious beliefs about modesty.

“Sharia law is now changing everything,” Nauert asserted in the segment, saying the program was an example of the “minority becoming the majority at one community pool.” The council said that report and others show that Nauert is Islamophobic.